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RunMat™ is a registered trademark of Dystr, Inc. MATLAB® is a registered trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. RunMat is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by The MathWorks, Inc.

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Builtin Reference
    • colon
    • createArray
    • empty
    • eye
    • false
    • full
    • inf
    • linspace
    • logspace
    • magic
    • meshgrid
    • nan
    • nchoosek
    • ndgrid
    • nonzeros
    • ones
    • peaks
    • perms
    • rand
    • randi
    • randn
    • randperm
    • range
    • sparse
    • spdiags
    • speye
    • spones
    • sprand
    • true
    • zeros

spones — Replace nonzero sparse matrix entries with ones.

spones(S) returns a sparse matrix with the same nonzero pattern as S and stored values set to one.

Syntax

R = spones(S)

Inputs

NameTypeRequiredDefaultDescription
ANumericArrayYes—Full or sparse matrix.

Returns

NameTypeDescription
SNumericArraySparse matrix.

Errors

IdentifierWhenMessage
RunMat:sparse:InvalidInputInputs are not a supported sparse construction form.sparse: invalid input
RunMat:sparse:InvalidIndexRow or column subscripts are nonpositive, noninteger, or outside explicit dimensions.sparse: invalid index
RunMat:sparse:InternalSparse matrix materialisation fails internally.sparse: internal error

How spones works

  • Sparse input preserves row indices and column pointers while replacing each stored value with 1.
  • Dense numeric and logical input are first converted to sparse pattern storage.
  • Typed integer input is a RunMat-only extension. Its nonzero pattern is inspected exactly, and the result is a sparse double matrix of ones.
  • NaN values count as stored values, matching RunMat sparse storage semantics.
  • Complex sparse storage is not currently represented by this builtin.

GPU memory and residency

spones gathers dense GPU tensors and returns a host sparse matrix because RunMat sparse matrices are currently host-resident.

Example

Preserve a sparse pattern

S = sparse([1; 3], [2; 2], [4; 9], 3, 3);
full(spones(S))

Expected output:

ans = [0 1 0; 0 0 0; 0 1 0]

Using spones with coding agents

Open a RunMat example with live inputs, then ask the agent to explain how spones changes the result.

Run a small spones example, explain the result, then change one input and compare the output.

FAQ

Does spones preserve explicit sparse zeros?⌄

RunMat's sparse constructor does not store final zero values, so spones operates on the stored nonzero pattern.

Related Array functions

Creation

colon · createArray · empty · eye · false · full · inf · linspace · logspace · magic · meshgrid · nan · nchoosek · ndgrid · nonzeros · ones · peaks · perms · rand · randi · randn · randperm · range · sparse · spdiags · speye · sprand · true · zeros

Grouping

accumarray · combinations · discretize · findgroups · groupcounts · grp2idx · splitapply

Sorting Sets

argsort · intersect · ismember · ismembertol · issorted · issortedrows · setdiff · setxor · sort · sortrows · union · unique

Shape

blkdiag · cat · circshift · diag · flip · fliplr · flipud · horzcat · ipermute · kron · permute · repelem · repmat · reshape · rot90 · squeeze · toeplitz · tril · triu · vertcat

Indexing

find · ind2sub · sub2ind

Introspection

iscolumn · isempty · ismatrix · isrow · isscalar · isvector · length · ndims · numel · size

Open-source implementation

Unlike proprietary runtimes, every RunMat function is open-source. Read exactly how spones is executed, line by line, in Rust.

  • View the source for spones in Rust on GitHub
  • Learn how the RunMat runtime works
  • Found a bug? Open an issue with a minimal reproduction.

About RunMat

RunMat is an open-source runtime that executes MATLAB-syntax code blazing on any GPU. It is licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.

  • RunMat automatically optimizes your math for GPU execution on Apple, Nvidia, and AMD hardware. No code changes needed. Simulations that took hours now take minutes.
  • Start running code in seconds. RunMat runs in the browser, on the desktop, or from the CLI. No license server, no IT ticket.

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On this page
  • Syntax
  • Inputs
  • Returns
  • Errors
  • How spones works
  • GPU memory and residency
  • Example
  • Preserve a sparse pattern
  • Using spones with coding agents
  • FAQ
  • Related Array functions
  • Creation
  • Grouping
  • Sorting Sets
  • Shape
  • Indexing
  • Introspection
  • Open-source implementation
  • About RunMat